Aa a 2016 Building with Biology Project recipient,we have held events to educate and engage the public in synthetic biology. The infographic we creatd summarizes are outreach through Building with BiologyWe were honored to be among the 200 groups collaborating on the 2016 Building with Biology project, one of only three high school iGEM teams, where most were museums, community labs, and educational organizations. Building with Biology is a synthetic biology project funded by the National Science Foundation and led by the Boston Science Museum, American Society for the advancement of Science, BioBuilder Foundation, Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Ithaca Science Center. After reading of the program’s goal to create conversations between the public and those working in synthetic biology research, like us, we submitted a detailed application in March explaining how we would use the physical kits at public venues and at the local schools to create those conversations with the members of our community. We have used their well designed activities, and accompanying thought provoking guides to ask questions, spark debates, and facilitate conversations. With our Building with Biology Kit, we ran two public events at the Ashburn Public Library and the 2016 Loudoun STEM Day and held public forums in two high school science classrooms on genetically engineered mosquitoes.
Ashburn Public Library
September 10, 2016
To get a public venue to host Building with Biology events, we contacted a few organizations.Our local library was fully supportive. Advertised by them, we held our event on a Saturday afternoon. In a large room, we ran the following activities; Super Organisms, See DNA, Kit of Parts, Bio Bistro, and Tech Tokens from the Building with Biology kits and the popular Plasmid Bracelets activity from William and Mary iGEM teacher curriculum. The Building with Biolgy kit activities are shown below.At the two hour event, kids took their time at each station, enjoying the activities while learning. It also gave us an opportunity to talk to parents; many expressed they did not know much about synthetic biology but were eager to learn. Being the first time we used the Building with Biology kits with the public, we found it to be excellent conversation starters on what synthetic biology could do. Many parents wanted to learn more, and we directed them to Building with Biology website. We worked with about 60 students at the event.
Public Forums
September 28, 2016October 18, 2016At Broad Run High School we held two public forum events to discuss and educate students about genetic engineering and synthetic biology. These events took place in the Independent Science Research class and Research Chemistry class of Ms. Kieninger, also our iGEM instructor. Each class had over 30 students and we used the entire hour and a half block for the forum. We discussed the effects of genetically engineered mosquitoes to combat the various harmful mosquito borne diseases such as Zika virus and malaria, that are rapidly spreading. Students weighed the pros and cons of releasing genetically engineered mosquitoes, and at the end, they decided whether or not the benefits outweighed the potential risks. During the public forum, we utilized components from the Building with Biology kits to give students a better understanding of how genetic engineering works, and understand their views and questions about the subject. Students recorded on notecards their final stance on the issue of releasing genetically engineered mosquitoes.
2016 Loudoun STEM Day
October 1, 2016
We were invited by Loudoun STEM Day director Laura Siko to be a facilitator at the 2016 Loudoun STEM Day. We used the Building with Biology kits Super Organisms, See DNA, and Kit of Parts. Additionally, we also used the popular Plasmid bracelet activity from William and Mary iGEM team’s teacher curriculum. At the full day event, students had fun while interacting with the kits. Working through the activities, we aimed for the students to get a sense of the interconnectedness of the activities from the DNA they extracted to the genetic parts they interacted with to create a super organism with special abilities. As we requested adults to fill out the survey, we had many interesting conversations. These ranged from general inquiries, expression of concerns on safety, to vehement opposition to synthetic biology. We even had a person who read our iGEM poster and surprisingly commented on how his father held a patent on microbial use in wastewater treatment. In total, we worked with over 300 students at the full day event.
Surveys taken at Loudoun STEM Day on October 1, 2016 by the Broad Run iGEM Team
We designed a survey of 11 questions and distributed it at the event. We used the 2013 LMU-TUM Munich iGEM team’s survey as a model and created our own survey questions. We had 120 responses. The data from the survey are summarized below.We confirmed our suspicions that people are more unfamiliar with the term synthetic biology than genetic engineering, perhaps attributable to familiarity with GMOs. Approval for genetic engineering in food had the lowest rate in comparison to medical, military, and industrial applications. More than half perceived risk with GMOs. A majority found the survey to be informative. While the preferred method for learning about genetic engineering favored reading articles, about a quarter liked to talk to scientists and another quarter liked listening to talks such as TED talks.
Farmwell Station Middle School
At the middle school, we are working with science teachers who will incorporate Building with Biology activities to supplement the 7th grade biology curriculum. The expected outcomes are; to enhance inquiry into the topic of synthetic biology while learning about its basics, to further explore this topic through conversations about its applications from the perspectives of societal and environmental benefits, safety, etc., and to encourage students to think about problems they see in the world and to consider solutions that may include genetic engineering. Please read more in our Sustainability section of the wiki page.
Summary
Collaborating with the 2016 Building with Biology project proved useful in getting the public talking about what they know of synthetic biology, what they think of it, and made us aware that we need to be more proactive in increasing these dialogs. The seemingly simple, but excellently prepared kits did just what we wanted; got students thinking and learning while doing a fun activity, and got parents, students, and adults talking about important synthetic biology technology application benefits, risks, and public safety.
